that nancy -- nancy pelosi andjohnboehnerdon'tdo that? [applause] >> they don't really socialize. one reason that joe might work together, i knew joe and i love him. i wouldn't do anything mean to joe. so that is a lot of it. the times have changed so much. in the senate, one of the problems as they got away from regular order. you send a bill to a committee. you have an oversight hearing, you have an amendment coming u-boat, you go to the full committee and the house and then you go to conference. but they wound up getting a transportation bill. it's a combination of things. modern technology, frankly it is a 24/7 news media. it is the fact that the members leave their families back home. you can't be a good legislator two and half days a week. you have to work at it. the combination of those things, it contributed to the partisanship and the gridlock that we have now. the answer is simple. it is called leadership. men and women of goodwill, conservative liberals, republicans, and the president -- they say it is an easy and we have to get results. >> so i want to come back to that. l

.johnboehnerstillin the house for the time being at the treasury. the president is back in the white house and harry reid is in the senate with a few more seats. why should i believe this would end any more positively than the summer of 2011? >> because again i'm not going to try to talk to you in optimism but let's look at what's changed. you have republican leadership acknowledging for the first time in this debate in public that it's agreed to increase in revenues as part of an agreement that helps restore fiscal balance. that's a very important change. you can debate on what motivated that change, and of course it's true that approach has been a popular very substantial support among the american people. you have a much greater recognition that the economy would benefit on a carefully designed balanced agreement on fiscal reform and putting it off indefinitely is not good for the country. that's important, too. and i also think again if you listen carefully to what people are saying and what many politicians are saying with many elected representatives are saying there's a lot of

to deal with. >> there has been some change there, andspeakerboehnerhasput up with you all that branch and signified he is willing to talk. that's what negotiations are about. i just look out the clinton, bush tax cut issue and where you put the rates as a major part of the solution when you look at the amount of money you could bring in and you add that into some of the deductions we're talking about, but that is a big chunk of change. >> and in a press conference he just did, the president seemed to -- >> one of my colleagues from where this enemies i missed it, they did pass their blackberry over commission to show show me that since. so, you know, clearly is showing flexibility which i think is important. clear the republicans in the house have to, to. >> this will be a congress where you think by the end of this year hopefully sort out the fiscal cliff. are you confident of that? >> i think will have to sort it out part of it and sorted under clinton afford. i do think every key will be crossed and every eye will be guided by the something's we should be done at the end of the yea

leaders including house speakerjohnboehner, housedemocratic leader nancy pelosi, senate majority leader harry reid and a republican mitch mcconnell. the first meeting since the election. they discussed what to do about expiring busheir tax reductions and across-the-board spending cuts set to hit in january called the fiscal cliff. they allowed cameras in the room before the talks. >> i want to welcome the congressional leadership and thank them for their time. we have -- factors don't go on middle class families that our economy remains strong and we are creating jobs and and that's the agenda that democrats and republicans and independents all across the country share so our challenge is to make sure that we are able to capri together and work to find common ground, make compromises and build consensus. all of us agree on this they want to see us focused on that but not our politics here in washington. my hope is this is the beginning of a process where we are able to come to an agreement that will reduce our deficit in a balanced way that we will deal with some of these long term enti